The present invention relates generally to protective eyewear, especially protective eyewear for protecting a wearer's eyes during a sporting event. More particularly, the present invention relates to protective sports eyewear using metal gridlike protection elements to protect the eyes of a wearer from contact.
The current improvement to the protective eyewear enhances the protection of the wearer's eyes and the versatility of the eyewear itself. Specifically, the current invention protects a wearer's eyes while allowing the frame and metal protective area to be easily assembled and disassembled for replacement and maintenance as desired by the wearer.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that protective eyewear for sporting events has existed for many years. However, in most protective eyewear the lenses and frames have not been readily detachable and easily reassembled by the end user of the eyewear. Eyewear does exist in other areas that includes detachable lenses comprised of glass, plastic or the like. However, these types of materials in the prior art eye shields do not adequately protect the eyes of a participant in a contact sport, such as LaCrosse, hockey, football, and the like. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,422,534, 2,406,998, 2,368,750, 473,915, 5,689,834, and 3,530,506 all disclose such conventional eyewear lacking the proper protection.
This conventional eyewear does not have the structure to adequately protect the eyes of a participant of a sporting event and have the flexibility and compatibility for the participant to remove and replace the metal protective piece and/or frame as desired. This prior art eyewear is composed of materials that would not adequately protect the eyes of a participant in a sport such as lacrosse, hockey or football. For example, the conventional eyewear lacks a metal frame and metal grid like protection desired to protect the eyes of a participant from impact with a solid object at high speeds.
As such, what is lacking in the art is protective eyewear for protecting a wearer's eyes during a sporting event wherein the protective lenses provide adequate protection for the wearer's eyes and maintain a connection to the frame such that the frame and eyewear are easily detachable and can easily be dissembled and reassembled as desired by the wearer.